March 15, 2011

To win an intro pack visit the new website and leave a comment below saying which snugwrap colour is your favourite.

Real Nappies have invited me to review their products on my blog in return for some free stuff. I promise I will tell you the truth though!

Disclosure aside, I have been using Real Nappies for Harriet since she was born. I wrote about my choice here, and now after a year of using them I want to share a bit about my experience.

Real Nappies are a cotton prefold system with a PUL waterproof cover with velcro tabs. You can fold the nappy differently for boys, girls or runny poos.

Feature: Cotton

Pro: I chose them because I wanted to cotton against my babies skin. Personally I hate wearing anything other than cotton, especially underwear, so I'd expect the same for my daughter.

Con: I found that overnight Harriet got nappy rash in cotton, so we used to put her in a disposable overnight until we discovered stay-dry microfibre. I noticed Real Nappies have micro-fibre night time boosters but I haven't tried them. Also cotton can be a bit bulky, especially when baby moves into the next size up.

Feature: VelcroPro: Velcro is easier then press studs to open and close.Con: By the time Harriet was about 9 months she could undo the velcro herself, but my daughter is a genius ;) so I don't know if all babies could do that. Now, so her little hands can't get to the velcro, she always wears frilly knickers over her nappy, which are pretty cute, but a bit annoying to add an extra step to every nappy change.

Feature: FoldPro: The unique folding system means you can adjust the absorbancy to suit boys or girls or runny poos or tummy sleepers. I love that you can fold them flat to wash and they dry really quick.Con: Some of my friends are using all in ones for their older babies cause they won't stay still enough to fold everything in place. I haven't really had this problem with Harriet, I just give her a toy or a book whilst I change her and she's happy to lie there for a minute. Unless it's a wonderweek, but that's another post.

Feature: PricePro: They are one fo the cheaper cloth nappy options, the only other cheap one I can find is Bumgenius econobums, which you can get great deals on especially if you live in America.Con: No complaints here!

Feature: Sizes

Pro: Harriet was in cloth from the moment we got home from the hospital, some one size nappies are far too bulky on newborns and they can't wear them till they grow a bit.

Con: I suppose we had to buy more nappies to cover each size but they are cheap enough so I don't mind.

Overall I am very happy with my Real Nappies. There are easier modern cloth nappy options, like all in ones, but they are more expensive, you need to buy a lot of them and they take longer to dry since you can't unfold them. Real Nappies are cheap and easy to use. Something about the cotton squares and plain white covers appeals to me, as they seem quite classic and timeless, with the ease of being a modern cloth nappy.

However I did need to use microfibre nappies for overnight and knickers to cover the velcro. I actually bought a couple of Bumgenius flips with press studs (they have a clever one size fits all PUL cover) to complement my Real Nappy stash, they come with microfibre nappies as well. If Real Nappies had press studs instead of velcro (especially on the larger sizes) I wouldn't have any complaints.

Real Nappies have a new website with great videos and instructions and information. And you can find them on facebook too.To win an intro pack visit the new website and leave a comment below saying which snugwrap colour is your favourite. Competition is open to Australian residents only and winner will be drawn 29 April 2011. Leave your email in the comment.

We just bought our newborn to toddler set, how do you clean your real nappies? My machine does a super spin which turn my towels into cardboard. Do you know if the same will happen to the inserts? Should I slow down the spin cycle?

Interesting you ask Michelle, cause I was just thinking of writing a post on washing cloth nappies.

Yes cotton can get crunchy, and apparantly it happens when they dry too quickly. Reducing the spin cycle, hanging the out whilst still damp and drying them in the shade should all help. I've never tried it but but I've also heard you can add some vinegar to the load so you could look that up. But dont use fabric softener, it reduces the absorbency.

About Me

A blog about my adventures in Ayurveda, which includes vegetarian cooking, spices, dosha, yoga, health, tastes and stories.
I am not an Ayurvedic practitioner
(yet!) but I am trying my hardest to learn.
Not so long ago I was talking about an Ayurvedic Clinic and someone thought I was saying Diabetic Clinic. I repeated myself "A-yur-ve-dic" "Ayurwhat?..."
So I started this blog. In the hope of finding some like minded people, and creating a place where I can focus my learning.